Marketing tech firm Sprinklr announced Thursday it had raised $46 million in new financing—at a valuation north of $1 billion. It joins MongoDB, AppNexus and Vice Media in New York City's most exclusive club.

Jake Barton, the 40-year-old founder of media design firm Local Projects, is a storyteller at heart. More than a decade ago, while working at museum design firm Ralph Appelbaum Associates, he became...